Author! Author!

It's National Poetry Month, but trying to find things to do in Denver when you're a poet is apparently only slightly easier than finding them when you're dead. Lighthouse Writers Workshop, a local independent writing school, aims to improve those odds when its new Writer's Studio Series debuts this week. Audiences will get a glimpse inside the creative minds of nationally recognized local poets Pattiann Rogers and Mark Irwin, both of whom write about the natural world, though in dissimilar ways.

Rogers and Irwin are not your everyday, ranting open-mike poets, says event moderator and Lighthouse faculty member Michael Henry, and this will be no "static" reading. "Basically, we're going to rip off Inside the Actors Studio," he promises, evoking the Bravo network series that profiles actors of stage and screen, then gives them a chance to engage in repartee with a live audience. "And I guess I'll get to be James Lipton [the show'shost]: I'm going to ask them questions about their origins as writers, and what purpose poetry serves for them, and a little about how one makes a living as a poet." Readings will follow Henry's Q&A, and Rogers and Irwin will chat with the peanut gallery. Then it's off to a reception and book signing.

In the interest of providing a different author/audience experience from what's typically offered at the Tattered Cover or local universities, Lighthouse hopes to present similar programs, focusing on changing literary disciplines, three or four times a year. Change is good: Meet Rogers and Irwin at 2 p.m. April 6, at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre, 119 Park Avenue West. For tickets, $6 to $10, call 303-297-1185 or log on to www.lighthousewriters.com.